Monthly Archives: January 2016

On March 4, 2016, we will host Culture in the Crossfire: The Security and Policy Implications of the Trafficking and Destruction of Antiquities, at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies.

The conflicts in Syria and Iraq, coupled with the rise of the Islamic State (IS), have brought renewed attention to the plight of cultural heritage in the Middle East and throughout the world. The trafficking and destruction of antiquities funds armed groups and organized crime, while also fulfilling the ideological goals of extremists. Without efforts to protect cultural heritage, it is likely that irreplaceable losses to our shared history will continue unabated.

The goal of this conference is to accurately portray the global scale of these problems and to propose tangible policy solutions for the public and private sectors to address these phenomena.